The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday was first published in 1976. The book contains many old Kiowa legends told to the author by his father. Telling these legends is a way that the Kiowa people assured that their heritage lived on. Momaday’s writing of the legends gives the culture a more permanent remembrance. Preservation of their cultural tradition was very important to the Kiowa people.
Arlene A. Elder points out that “the book’s linguistic structure, established in the first section and later subverted, that, in my view, creates a dialogic performance experience for the reader and narrator, that has drawn the most consistent attention of critics, most of them noting the increasing interrelationship of different voices present
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in each section” (274). Chadwick Allen connects the elements of memory and identity in his article, indicating “The whole of The Way to Rainy Mountain… can be read as an exercise in blood memory”(101). According to Allen, “blood memory achieves tropic power by blurring distinctions between racial identity and narrative” (93 – 94). In addition, Papovich describes The Way to Rainy Mountain as “an account of his re-creation of the Kiowa migration and an attempt to find his place within the geographical and cultural landscape of migration”(13). While Elder, Allen and Papovich all have valid points, their positions can be taken a step further by arguing that the unusual narrative structure of The Way to Rainy Mountain emphasizes the preservation of cultural values, something that is very important to the Kiowa people, and identity through memory. The retelling of the legends in The Way to Rainy Mountain by Momaday’s father was a common way for the Kiowa people to preserve their heritage orally, even to the point of preserving their culture in general. Momaday’s writing of them into a book assures that even if all of the Kiowa people die out, their cultural views will be preserved forever. Momaday states in the prologue to The Way to Rainy Mountain that “ the verbal tradition by which it has been preserved has suffered a deterioration in time” (4). If people stop talking about a culture or anything else verbally and it is not written down, eventually nobody will know about it. Putting something in writing, however, creates a more permanent recollection of memory, cultural values and identity. To write something down however, a person has to remember what they have been told. One of the cultural values of the Kiowa, as explained in The Way to Rainy Mountain is obedience. One of the legends that Momaday’s father told him explained how “the years went by and the boy still had the ring which killed his mother. The grandmother spider told him never to throw the ring into the sky, but one day he threw it up, and it fell squarely on top of his head and cut him in two.” (30). This legend portrays the lesson that if a person does what they have been told not to do, or does not do what they are told to, that something drastic may occur. The legend exaggerates what would happen to make a point. When Momaday’s father tells him this legend, he was trying to pass down a cultural value of the Kiowa people to his son. If his father had not remembered this legend, this value of the Kiowa culture would have eventually disappeared. If something is not passed down in some way or another, everyone who knows about it eventually passes away and there is no one left to keep the tradition going. The cultural values of the Kiowa people are a big part of what make up their cultural identity. Throughout the book, Momaday reminisces about things that he or members of his family have experienced. He recalls “When he was a boy, my father went with his grandmother, Keahdinekeah, to the shrine of one of the talyi-da-i. The old woman made an offering of bright cloth, and she prayed. The shrine was a small, specially made tipi; inside, suspended from the lashing of the poles, was the medicine itself” (35). The historical context that comes before this particular memory, explains what happens to the twins from the legend that sparked this memory. One of them ended up turning into bundles of medicine. This was a real event that happened in the Kiowa tribe. If this experience had not been written down, then this link to the Kiowa tribe would have disappeared. William M.
Clements asserts that N. Scott Momaday incorporates a folk historical sense into his book The Way to Rainy Mountain. Clements says that “ the writer using the folk viewpoint perceives his or her work as part of a continuing artistic heritage which begins with his culture’s oral literature, owes its primary survival to oral tradition, and continues to, or through, his or her own fiction, poems, plays or essays” (66). Momaday also talks about this oral tradition. He explains in the preface of The Way to Rainy Mountain how “The Way to Rainy Mountain was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that is has remained vital and immediate, for that is the nature of the story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradtion, which exists in a dimension of timelessness” (ix). This idea of Clements supports the idea that Momaday’s father telling him the legends and him writing them down helps to preserves the cultural heritage of the Kiowa people. He states that while “Momaday never experienced Kiowa culture on a day-to-day basis for long periods of time” with the exception of House Made of Dawn, “his work has been informed primarily by his perception of his Kiowa heritage” (68). Momaday’s perception of the Kiowa heritage comes from the legends told to him by his father. One of these legends reveals that the Kiowa people “came one by one into the world through a hollow log” (16). A person’s heritage is one of the many defining factors of their
identity. Arlene A. Elder professes that the narrative design of The Way to Rainy Mountain is unusual, yet fits the book and is significant. She mentions that “the book’s linguistic structure, established in the first section and later subverted, that, in my view, creates a dialogic performance experience for the reader and narrator, that has drawn the most consistent attention of critics, most of them noting the increasing interrelationship of different voices present in each section” (274). This increasing interrelationship of the different voices in each of the sections of the book “The Setting Out”, “The Going On” and “The Closing In” implies that the further that Momaday goes on his journey of self - discovery, the more his memories and knowledge of the legends told to him by his father reveal the cultural identity and values of the Kiowa people. She believes that “if one of the most fruitful ways to read Rainy Mountain is as autobiography, it is significant that Momaday has returned here to the nonwestern, American Indian concept of telling one’s life story by constructing an individual identity inextricably connected to the beliefs, memories, and experiences of his Kiowa ancestors and relatives” (275). His own memories of things he has experienced or been told that someone else in his family has experienced also connect to his identity and to the identities of his family members. J. Frank Papovich claims that landscape, tradition, and identity are all significant aspects of The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday. He describes The Way to Rainy Mountain as “an account of his re-creation of the Kiowa migration and an attempt to find his place within the geographical and cultural landscape of migration”(13). Papovich is basically explaining here how Momaday is going on a journey to find himself, particularly his cultural heritage, including values of his ancestors. He considers “the role of landscape in The Way to Rainy Mountain” as “inextricably connected to the interplay of the three narrative voices” (14). The relationship of the three voices shows that Momaday is having success on his journey of finding out his ancestry. The use of these three voices also gives the reader an idea of the cultural values and heritage of the Kiowa people. Papovich further points out “Momaday’s journey to Rainy Mountain reenacts tribal history in a determined effort to explore a symbolic landscape through the perspective of the legend and history of the tribe and through the perspective of individual imagination. It is a search for individual identity and ancestral tradition in the natural world” (13). Momaday explains how the journey to find out about one’s cultural heritage may be a long and arduous one. He says “The journey began one day long ago on the edge of the Northern Plains. It was carried on over a course of many generations and many hundreds of miles. In the end there were many things to remember, to dwell upon and talk about” (3). Memory, however, is a significant aspect of one’s journey to find their identity and to find out about their people’s cultural values. Elder explains how The Way To Rainy Mountain (1969), recreates this journey in a multigeneric narrative” and that “it is a work that has intrigued many critics, particularly for its unusual tripartite narrative design” (272). Aside from having three sections of legends, each legend also contains a historical voice and at the end, a voice of personal memory. However, The Way to Rainy Mountain uses this structure for a purpose – to emphasize the importance of memory on this journey of self-discovery. Chadwick Allen thinks that blood memory is significant in The Way to Rainy Mountain. He says, “blood memory achieves tropic power by blurring distinctions between racial identity and narrative” (93-94). Momaday seems to dot his in the introduction to The Way to Rainy Mountain by saying “A single knoll rises out of the plain in Oklahoma, north and west of the Wichita Range. For my people, the Kiowas, it is an old landmark and they gave it the name Rainy Mountain” (5). He believes that “The whole of The Way to Rainy Mountain, for instance can be read as an exercise in blood memory”(101). Throughout the book, Momaday continues to consider himself as one of the Kiowa people, though their popularity took a nosedive before he was born. The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday highlights the author’s journey in discovering his cultural heritage – values and identity. He achieves this through the use of memory and the narrative structure of the book.
12. What form of figurative language does the author use in lines 8 & 9 of page 216 to make his writing more
In the book, “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N. Scott Momaday, there is 24 chapters in which consist of three voices, myth, historical, and personal. All of these parts of each chapter come together to make an overall meaning. In chapter 10, Tai-me is described both as a person and as a figure and describes the importance of Tai-me. The myth explains how Tai-me became a part of the Kiowas. The Kiowas were hungry and one of the men went out on a search of food. While searching the man stumbled upon Tai-me and the man told Tai-me his problem. Tai-me told the man, “ Take me with you and I will give you whatever you want”. The historical part explains that the Kiowas were extraordinary grateful for Tai-me that Tai-me became the symbol of their worship and was the central figure of their Kudo ceremonies. The personal part of the story, is the narrator reflecting upon the time he visited the Tai-me bundle and left an offering as thanks. In all the chapter shows the great importance of Tai-me to the Kiowas.
Life can sometime bring unwanted events that individuals might not be willing to face it. This was the conflict of O’Brien in the story, “On The Rainy River”. As the author and the character O’Brien describes his experiences about the draft to the Vietnam War. He face the conflict of whether he must or must not go to the war, in this moment O’Brien thinking that he is so good for war, and that he should not be lost in that way. He also show that he disagree with the consbet of the war, how killing people will benefit the country. In addition O’Brien was terrifying of the idea of leaving his family, friends, and everything that he has done in the past years.
The Way to Rainy Mountain was written in 1969 by Pulitzer Prize winning author N. Scott Momaday. The novel is about Scott Momaday's Kiowa ancestors and their journey from the Montana area to Fort Sill near Rainy Mountain, Oklahoma, where their surrender to the United States Cavalry took place. In The Way to Rainy Mountain, Momaday traces his ancestral roots back to the beginning of the Kiowa tribe while not only learning more about the Kiowa people but rediscovering himself and finding out what his true identity is. The death of his grandmother prompts Momaday to dig deeper into the background of his family. To better help him become closer with his ancestral roots, Momaday returns to Rainy Mountain to visit his recently deceased grandmother’s grave where the spirit of the Kiowa tribe was thought to be very strong. Scott Momaday’s grandmother was believed to be the last of the Kiowa’s; with her death came the death of the Kiowa culture. Momaday wouldn’t let such a spiritual people who meant so much to him be forgotten so he created The Way to Rainy Mountain with this motivation. As Momaday works through each of the Kiowa’s mythical stories, he begins to learn a lot about his ancestors and, in turn, about himself. After reading the novel, it is evident to the reader that from beginning to end, Momaday has grown tremendously and has an increased sense of knowledge and appreciation for his Kiowa ancestors and their spiritual way of life. While Scott Momaday’s was creating his world renowned novel, The Way to Rainy Mountain, his relationship with past events greatly contributed to the overall meaning of the book in three major ways. During the novel, Momaday uses his recollections of the past to help understand Kiowa myths a...
Welch, James. "The Earthboy Place." Native American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology. Ed. Vizenor, Gerald. United States of America: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 1995, 165-174.
In both short nonfictional stories, “ The Uprooting of a Japanese- American Family” by Yoshiko Uchida and “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N.Scott Momaday both authors have comparative and contrasting traits in their purpose of writing their own stories.
The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.
Use of dialect and colloquial language, this involves the use of informal language in literature work (Irmscher, 1975). Throughout the story, "Their eyes were Watching God" there is the use of these form of language which played a role in establishing
Updike, John. “A&P.” Literature Craft and Voice. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw, 2013. 141-145. Print.
In N. Scott Momaday’s and D. Brown’s separate passages, they describe different views on the landscapes in Oklahoma. Momaday’s purpose is to reveal that in the midst of harsh surroundings, reverence can be found within.. Brown’s purpose is to explain how the relationship of nature is destroyed over time. Momaday creates not only a harsh tone, but also a spiritual one in order to reveal to the reader that the landscapes unforgivable qualities hide its sense of awe; while Brown adopts a mourningful tone in order to convey the landscape’s hopelessness and despair.
Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American from New Mexico and is part of the Laguna tribe. She received a MacArthur "genius" award and was considered one of the 135 most significant women writers ever. Her home state has named her a living cultural treasure. (Jaskoski, 1) Her well-known novel Ceremony follows a half-breed named Tayo through his realization and healing process that he desperately needs when he returns from the horrors of World War II. This is a process that takes him back to the history of his culture.
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
The novel, presented as a series of disjointed, possibly problematic, narrative frames, attempts to draw attention to this fact. "...no word exists alone, and the reason for choosing each word had to be explained with a stor...
The most prominent linguistic aspect of the novel is its lack of dialogue. There is not one line of dialogue throughout the entire novel. This reliance on narration accomplishes several things for Kincaid's protagonist, Xuela Claudette Richardson. First, it allows Xuela to be defined by no one but herself. There...
The language used in the first two paragraphs outlines the area to which the book is set, this depicts that it is almost perfect and an. an idyllic place to be. The mood is tranquil and takes the reader to a place “where all life seems to live in harmony”. In the first two paragraphs. Carson uses language of melodrama to inspire the reader’s.